how did the dynamics change for john boehner? do you agree that he is more empowered two years later to go back to his caucus and strike a deal? >> reporter: i assume he is, but i don't know if he can do it. and that's a great -- you know, i think the next three months are going to be fascinating to watch. does boehner have the guts to go and bring a compromise deal to the house floor that won't get a majority of his republican conference? can he -- does he have the guts to do that if the senate comes up with a compromise that gets 65 votes, gets 10 republicans on board, does he have the guts to do something like that? i don't know. i mean, you know, another part of this republican hand wringing that i'm surprised we're not hearing about is, you know, a lot of the reasons why, for instance, republicans lost senate seats, didn't gain them, but lost them. forget what happened two years ago in 2010 when they didn't win as many as they could have. they lost senate seats, which is still the biggest surprise, i think, of this election.